Before I knew who the Eagles were, I knew what "Hotel California" was. Looking back now, the well-known lyrical desert ballad whines along with a strange desperation that seems to mirror the tone of the on-again, off-again relationship of the band itself over the decades. Breaking up and reuniting more times than simple ego clashes can account for, the Eagles were a driving force in the 1970s rock-splosion in Southern California. Four of their six albums landed at the top of the charts (consecutively no less) and the band's popularity over the decades has hardly suffered from their inability to communicate with each other.